McALLEN - Earth Day isn't until Tuesday, but at the International Museum of Arts and Sciences this weekend a variety of exhibits painted a harsh picture of the Rio Grande Valley's declining water quality.

IMAS' annual celebration of the Earth's ecosystem emphasized a variety of exhibits that highlight how Valley residents and industry are polluting the Rio Grande.

Museum guide Mario Alberto Lopez used a model of the area to show how oil cars leave on the roads, dirt piled high at construction sites and illegally dumped paint all taint water from McAllen to the Laguna Madre.

"Every little piece of trash we throw eventually makes it into the waterways," Lopez told the children. "My grandfather and father used to be able to swim in the river."

Rosario Graham and her children said they were particularly shocked after the demonstration. Graham, the mother of three children, said her household produces a heap of trash everyday.

"Sometimes, I feel bad for how much trash I generate," Graham said.

In other parts of the museum, the mood was less somber, though.

Children played butterfly bingo, listened to environmentally themed stories and even reluctantly pet a baby American Alligator.

S. Grady Deaton, an outreach educator at Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, told the room full of children how polluted waterways are threatening more than 6,000 amphibians and countless other animals.

But he also lightened the mood by passing around a snake and reminded children of the old area adage that helps a person differentiate between a poisonous Coral snake and non-poisonous Milk snake.

"Red and yellow; kill a fellow," he said. "Red and black; friend of jack."

Tuesday marks the 38th annual Earth Day celebration. Congress launched the holiday in 1970, the same year the Environmental Protection Agency was created to form a unified federal entity to repair environmental damage and establish regulations to ensure clean air and water.

"It was really interesting," 10-year-old Jessica Graham said of the exhibits. "We could really see what will happen in the future and what we can do to prevent it."

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Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.